Information on the effects of corona measures

Dear CAU members,

We have already received lots of and very legitimate questions about which specific restrictions we can expect at the CAU over the next four weeks as a result of the agreements made between the government and federal states.

Like you, the University Board and the crisis management team are currently waiting for answers to these questions, mainly if and to what extent attendance on campus will be restricted as from next week in teaching, research, administration and service facilities. The state government is consulting right now about implementing the measures agreed yesterday for Schleswig-Holstein. We will let you know immediately as soon as reliable information is provided and we have transferred this into specifications for university operations. However, we do not expect this to happen before tomorrow at the earliest, or over the weekend. We will send round a separate e-mail as from 2.11.2020 about the measures resulting from this, potentially for teaching by Monday.

The University Board, the crisis management team and the deans have already agreed over the past few days that the following measures are to be taken, effective immediately, in order to reduce the contacts on campus and thereby contribute towards combating the further spread of the coronavirus:

• staff meetings, self administrative committee meetings, professorial appointment and staff hiring procedures should be only conducted digitally again, for the time being, or postponed where possible.
• Priority should be given to holding consultations in the various service facilities by telephone/e-mail or video conference.
• Digital formats should be selected for university events like conferences, workshops or lecture series, as well as internal training courses and further education events.
• Business trips which are not absolutely necessary (for completing work) are not to be conducted. Business trips to high-risk areas abroad and regions with high numbers of infections within Germany should not be approved.
• More people should work from home again, in order to reduce the number of people on site and the amount of contact at any one time. Each institution/department/institute is responsible for the specific management of these measures and generally assumes that employees will coordinate with their superiors.

Please prepare yourselves now for these “minimum measures”. We will be in touch as soon as we are aware of the exact measures for the university. We are prepared for this situation with reinforced restrictions and now have to wait for the regulations from the state. We therefore ask for both your patience as well as your understanding.

With best regards,
by the University Board

Claudia Ricarda Meyer
Chancellor of Kiel University